• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.45-50
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• 2021

In this study, the effect of the size of B powder on the critical current density (J_c) of MgB₂ prepared by an in situ reaction process was investigated. Various combinations of B powders were made using a micron B, ball-milled B and nano B powders. Micron B powder was reduced by ball milling and the milled B powder was mixed with the micron B or nano B powder. The mixing ratios of the milled B and micron or nano B were 100:0, 50:50 and 0:100. Non-milled micron B powder was also mixed with nano powder in the same ratios. Pellets of (2B+Mg) prepared with various B mixing ratios were heat-treated to form MgB₂. T_c of MgB₂ decreased slightly when the milled B was used, whereas the J_c of MgB₂ increased with increasing amount of the milled B or the nano powder. The used of the milled B and nano B power promoted the formation MgB₂ during heat treatment. In addition to the enhanced formation of MgB₂, the use of the powders reduced the grain size of MgB₂. The use of the milled and nano B powder increased the J_c of MgB₂. The highest J_c was achieved when 100% nano B powder was used. The J_c enhancement is attributed to the high volume fraction of the superconducting phase (MgB₂) and the large grain boundaries, which induces the flux pinning at the magnetic fields.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.14-18
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• 2021

The Mg-Powder-Compaction (MPC) process is proposed to fabricate the MgB₂ superconducting wires. Mg powder wall, similar to the Mg metal tube, inside the Nb outer sheath has been made and the stochiometric B powder was inserted into the wall. Even though the very high MgB₂ core density of 2.53 g/cm³ is obtained, the superconducting area fraction of MgB₂ is not high enough for the applications. In this work, an advanced MPC process was adopted by adding Mg powder into B powder. The Mg powder wall in the initial wire was fabricated by controlling the wall thickness while maintaining a constant density, and the mixture of B and Mg powder was filled into the Mg powder wall with the same filling density. It is found that the reduction in the area of the Mg powder wall proceeds similar to the wire, and the Mg powder wall is well maintained at the final wire diameter, which is advantage for the fabrication of long wires. With the advanced MPC process, as the added Mg is increased the densities of MgB₂ core is decreased and the porous structure is formed, it is found that the area fraction of superconducting MgB₂ increase up to the 37.7 % with the improved high critical current density (J_c) and the engineering critical current density (J_e).

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.36-39
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• 2022

Since the MgB₂ superconductor is simply composed of two constituents of Mg and B, its performance can be monitored easily with the change of one ingredient compared to the other. With the powder size of B less than 100 nm, two different sizes of Mg powders are used to investigate the reaction temperature dependence of MgB₂ bulk samples. In the range of 630-700℃ for the duration of 30 min., the un-reacted Mg is seen only at 630℃ with Mg powder size of <5 ㎛, whereas Mg traces are detected at all the temperature range with Mg powder size of <45 ㎛. The reaction temperature dependence of MgB₂ superconducting transition temperature, T_c, shows little difference whether Mg powder size is large or small in this range except for the 630℃. It is worthy of notice that the critical current densities of MgB₂ show higher performance with the small size of Mg compared to the large one at all field ranges. With the Mg powder size of <45 ㎛, flux pinning is enhanced with decreasing the reaction temperature, whereas flux pinning properties is quite similar in the Mg powder size of <5 ㎛ except for the 630℃, where Mg is left behind after the reaction.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.9-14
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• 2016

The effect of the size and shape of magnesium(Mg) powder on the formation of $MgB_2$ and the critical current density($J_{c,}$) of $MgB_2$ bulk was studied. As a precursor for the formation of $MgB_2$, Mg and $MgB_4$ powder, which was synthesized through the reaction of boron (B) with Mg powders, was used. $MgB_4$ was mixed with Mg powders of various sizes, pressed into pellets and heat-treated at $650^{\circ}C-750^{\circ}C$ in flowing argon gas. The XRD analysis of the heat-treated $MgB_2$ samples showed that the volume fraction of $MgB_2$ was the highest as 92.74 % when spherical Mg powder with an average size of $25.7{\mu}m$ was used, whereas the volume fraction was the lowest as 79.64 % when plate-like Mg powder with a size of $34.1{\mu}m$ was used. The superconducting transition temperature ($T_c$) of $MgB_2$ was not sensitive to the characteristics of the Mg powders used. All of the prepared $MgB_2$ samples showed a high $T_c$ of 38.3 K and a small superconducting transition width of 0.2 K-0.5 K. $J_c$ (5 K and 1 T) of $MgB_2$ was the highest as $3.93{\times}10^4A/cm^2$ when spherical Mg powder with a size of $25.7{\mu}m$ was used, whereas $J_c$ was the lowest as $2.18{\times}10^4A/cm^2$when plate-like Mg powder with a size of $34.1{\mu}m$ was used. The relationship between the $J_c$ of $MgB_2$ and the characteristics of the Mg powders used was explained in terms of the volume fraction of $MgB_2$ and the apparent density of the $MgB_2$ pellets.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.28-33
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• 2023

Magnetic relaxation properties of pure MgB₂ powder samples and diluted water-treated MgB₂ powder samples were investigated. The magnetic field H-dependence, m(H), and the time t-dependence, m(t), of the magnetic moment m were measured and analyzed using the PPMS-VSM magnetometer equipment, respectively. The m(t) reduction rates of pure MgB₂ powder samples and diluted water-treated MgB₂ powder samples decreased to about 0.7 ~ 1.8% and 0.6 ~ 1.0% for about 7200 s, respectively, at temperature T = 15 K. The magnetic relaxation properties of the two types of MgB₂ powders were analyzed by calculating the magnetic relaxation rate S = -dln(M_irr)/dln(t) values according to Anderson-Kim theory. The magnetic relaxation ratio S values of the two types of MgB₂ powder samples were almost similar. As a result of the quantum creep effect, the constant magnetic relaxation rate S characteristic was confirmed at a temperature range of T = 10 K or less.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.24 no.9
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• pp.465-468
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• 2014

The crystallization effects of boron (B) powder on the phase, full width at half maximum (FWHM) values, and critical properties were investigated for in-situ reacted $MgB_2$ bulk superconductors. The semi-crystalline B powder was heat-treated at different temperatures of 1000, 1300 and $1500^{\circ}C$ for 5 hours in an Ar atmosphere. Then, using as-received and heat-treated B powders, the $MgB_2$ samples were prepared at $600^{\circ}C$ for 40 hours in an Ar atmosphere. As the heat-treatment temperature of the B powder increased, both the particle size of the B powder and crystalline phase increased. In the case of $MgB_2$ samples using B powders heat-treated at above $1300^{\circ}C$, unreacted magnesium (Mg) and B remained due to the improved crystallinity of the B powder. As the heat-treatment temperature of B powder increased, the critical current density of $MgB_2$ decreased continuously due to the reduction of grain boundary density and superconducting volume caused by unreacted Mg and B.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.6-10
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• 2003

Silver nano-powder was added to Ma $B_2$ to make (Ag)$_{(x)wt.%}$(Mg $B_2$)$_{(l00-x)wt.%}$ (A $g_{x}$-Mg $B_2$) (10 $\leq$ x $\leq$ 50) composite superconductors to investigate the effect of the Ag nano-powder on the vortex pinning. Pellets made out of the mixed powder were put inside stainless steel tubes, which were sintered at 85$0^{\circ}C$ in Ar atmosphere. No impurity phase was identified for as-rolled samples. However, both the Mg $B_2$ and the A $g_{x}$-Mg $B_2$ composite pellets, when sintered, contain small amount of Mg $B_4$ and MgAg impurity phases. From the magnetization study, it was found that the flux pinning was improved in the high magnetic field region (> 3 T) only when 10w/o Ag was added to Mg $B_2$. The "two step" structures in ZFC M(T) curve gradually increased as the amount of Ag added increased. Pinning centers can be created by adding a suitable amount of Ag nano-powder which is not too large to increase the decoupling between the Mg $B_2$ grains.crease the decoupling between the Mg $B_2$ grains.

• Progress in Superconductivity
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.74-79
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• 2007

We characterized the highly refined boron precursor powders which were attrition milled for different milling times. $MgB_2$ powder precursor was formed from elemental crystalline Mg and amorphous B powder. The microstructure was investigated by SEM. SEM results indicate that the size of the milled powders was reduced with increasing milling time, which were varied from 0 to 8 hours. We also studied thermal behavior of the starting precursor by DSC as a function of milling time. The thermal behavior of the powder precursors was influenced by milling time. In order to determine the thermal events at DSC peaks, we annealed the milled powder mixture at $600^{\circ}C$ and $650^{\circ}C$ under protective gas and then analyzed the formation of $MgB_2$ by the XRD. We observed that superconducting $MgB_2$ phase was formed at lower temperature by the longer high energy milling. These results show that the high energy milling of the boron precursor powder can improve the reactivity for the formation of $MgB_2$.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.40-44
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• 2019

In this study, the effects of the compaction method for (Mg+2B) powders on the apparent density and superconducting properties of $MgB_2$ bulk superconductor were investigated. The raw powders used in this study were nano-sized boron (B) and spherical magnesium (Mg). A batch of a powder mixture of (Mg+2B) was put in a steel mold and uniaxially pressed at 1 ton or 3 tons into pellets. Another batch of the powder mixture was uniaxially pressed at 1 ton and then pressed isostatically at $1800kg/cm^2$ in the water chamber. All pellets were heat-treated at $650^{\circ}C$ for 1 h in flowing argon gas for the formation of $MgB_2$. The apparent density of powder compacts pressed at 3 ton was higher than that at 1 ton. The cold isostatic pressing (CIP) in a water chamber allowed further increase of the apparent density of powder compacts, which influenced the pellet density of the final products ($MgB_2$). The compaction methods (uniaxial pressing and CIP) did not affect the formation of $MgB_2$ and superconducting critical temperature ($T_c$) of $MgB_2$, but affected the critical current density ($J_c$) of $MgB_2$ significantly. The sample with the high apparent density showed high $J_c$ at 5 K and 20 K at applied magnetic fields (0-5 T).

• Progress in Superconductivity
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.116-121
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• 2012

Effect of mixed gas and additional Mg powder in an annealing process of the $MgB_2$ is investigated. Four different type of samples were prepared, each in different annealing environment of Ar, $Ar+4%H_2$, Ar with Mg powder and $Ar+4%H_2$ with Mg powder. Different annealing environment did not affect the electron-phonon interaction which is reflected from the same superconducting transition of 36.6 K for all samples. The reducing effect of hydrogen is clearly depicted from the presence of excess Mg in sample synthesized in $Ar+4%H_2$ gas implying the reduced rate of reaction between Mg and B. This has manifested itself in terms of slightly increased high-field critical current density of the sample. In contrast, the sample synthesized in $Ar+4%H_2$ with Mg powder, has shown overall enhancement in the superconducting properties as presented by higher diamagnetic saturation and critical current density.